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Beidou looks at her ticket, she checks her number over and over again, bored. Her kindle is out of power and there’s nothing else to do but to see her ticket and stare at the train station, there’s not a lot of people because it’s too early, just local trains pass by and she has to take one more to get to the main station. She’s tired and bored and she has nothing but a small bag and a camera. Her tablet is inside and she only uses it to write but she’s losing her mind. She gets the next subway, just a small 15 minute ride to the main place. She get’s outside of the subway station and walks two blocks to the main train station.
It’s still early for the train she has to take but she walks around looking for something to eat. It’s 11 pm, the station, even if it’s big and pretty it has nothing open, not even a small store. This station is crowded, thought, and she decides to grab something from the vending machine just a small sandwich, a soda and a chocolate (her favorite, the purple one), Beidou knows it’s not very healthy but she also knows that if she spends too much time looking for food she won’t have time to look for her train.
There’s a small screen next to the vending machine and she looks for her train. It’s on the 11th platform, she looks for it and figures that is the one by the end of the long hallway on the left. She walks for around 10 minutes and when she arrives checks the number. She has 5 minutes to spare so she sits and waits. She takes a couple of pictures of the station and some trains nearby. At 11:20 the train arrives and she looks for her wagon, it is the number 4.
She walks in, takes a couple of pictures taking advantage that her part is practically empty. She looks for her bed number 481, it’s a small capsule with a simple bed. It looks like modern bunk beds, she has the one on the top and takes a picture of the ladder and while the place is empty she snaps a fast pic of her small capsule before going in. She lets a small part of the sliding door open and starts charging her stuff, first her kindle, then her tablet and lastly her phone, she knows she’s going to need them.
Beidou picked this train for her article because it is unusual. Not the fact that it's a sleeper train but the fact that it's new and the original features are that the beds are capsules. Looks very modern and it’s not that expensive but Beidou guesses the idea came from how popular capsule hotels or pod hotels became last year. She already visited some of those hotels in Tokyo and reviewed them but these kinds of trains were introduced to Europe a couple of weeks ago and she had to check them out. It was late and she was tired so she figured since the trajectory was long (around 13 hours) she had more than enough time to write and check out more of the place so she moved around her stuff and closed her capsule from the inside with a key.
It’s around 3 am when she wakes up, still groggy from the small nap. To be a sleeper train is pretty quiet, she gets out to go to the toilet and when she comes back she realices the capsule that's the “bottom” of her “bunk bed” / capsule is empty. She likes that it's a little bit more private, they have sliding doors next to the space that consist of two double beds facing each other that make a room which also has a door that people can close to not listen to the noise outside. There’s a long hallway and at the end of it is a bathroom with a shower and three normal toilets. It gives enough privacy and for what she saw there’s only three more rooms, she makes the fast maths to write in her tablet: 16 beds to a shower and three toilets. Not too bad. Especially if the place looks empty. She writes it down in the notes of her phone and makes a fast drawing of the distribution.
When she is done she realices the other bed on the bottom is also empty, the sliding door is open and she can see the key moving. She gets on her capsule but this time she opens completely the sliding door, she listened in her sleep a voice of a woman so it’s hopefully safe to let her feet hanging from the door, she takes her tablet, connects her keyboard and writes a general description of the place, mostly a draft of her experience and the distribution. She is putting an “x” where images should be when the other door slides open.
It’s a woman.
The woman infront of her has silver hair, a purple pijama and the most beautiful face Beidou has ever seen.
Beidou tries to not gay panic but she ends up hitting her head against the ceiling trying to sit straight and whispers “sorry” before the other girl sees her.
The girl smiles at her and says “no worry” and gets down she practically whispers “do you know if the bathrooms are on the left or the right? I didn’t see them when I arrived”
Beidou signals her the way and waits in her place, writing a bit before turning down her tablet and crossing her feet. For a moment she wonders if it’s too annoying to have her door open and when the other girl comes inside of the ‘room’ she asks “Hey, the beds that are under us are empty, it’s just you and I, do you mind if I keep my door open?”
The other girl climbs to her own bed and sits on the corner of it “Not at all. This place feels to cramped so I understand”
“Thank you” Beidou says “I can’t sleep so I will read for a while, I’ll be quiet, I swear. By the way my name is Beidou”
“Oh it is okay. We have plenty of time to sleep, we still have around 7 more hours here, my name is Ningguang” the other girl says as she slides her own door open and crosses her feet, too. Like she’s making a statement: it’s okay we can talk. “So, Beidou, What book are you reading?”
“I started this new book of The Hunger Games. It’s called The sunrise on the reaping, everyone I know says it’s great so I decided to give it a try. Started the first couple of chapters but they’re pretty heavy so I am cheering myself”
Ningguang nods “I already read it. It’s very good, 5 stars. But if you want to be at least a little bit happy wherever you’re traveling it’s probably for the best if you don’t read it right now”
Beidou smiles “I’ll keep it in mind, thank you. I’m staying in Amsterdam, where this train stops. And you? Are you taking another train?”
Ningguang moves her head, nodding “After this I probably won’t want to get on another train in at least a year” she moves her hands signaling at the small space “I’m staying in Amsterdam, too. A girl 's trip. And you? Business or pleasure?”
“I love girl’s trips. But no, Business, I’m a writer, I normally write about unusual places to live or sleep like this one. This torture was voluntary”
Ningguang laughs so hard and asks more questions about Beidou’s job. They talk until 5 am about random places, work trips and the nightmare that capsules are to stay for too long. Ningguang also talks about her job, she works in a firm back in Germany, in the same town that Beidou’s office is. They speak German from there instead of English and make small talk until they’re both sleepy. At 5 am they both close their sliding doors for security and they sleep more.
Around 9 am Beidou gets out with her toiletries and gets to the bathroom to shower. She also takes her change of clothes in her bag. The place is small and uncomfortable but she is kind of used to it. The place is still empty but since she can listen to more people just talking, most of them are probably up. Her hair is still a bit wet when she comes back to her ‘room’ but she is clean and changed, now wearing her favorite black mom jeans and her red -signature- blouse. There’s a tray with breakfast in the bed that’s under her and another tray of breakfast in the bed under Ningguang. She gives a couple of knocks and Ningguang looks out her door.
“The staff brought breakfast and I asked them to leave them in those beds since they’re empty, I was waiting for you to eat.” Ning says climbing down the small stair next to her bed.
“That’s very kind of you, thank you” Beidou says, she opens up her bed and leaves her stuff there and lets the sliding door open, she gets down and sits in front of Ningguang “I was taking a shower before more people started to get up. I know we still have more time left but I wanted to take advantage now that’s empty”
“It was a good idea! I’ll probably shower after breakfast or before we get to Amsterdam to change to my ‘pretty’ clothes” Ning says, signaling quotation marks.
They shared breakfast and spoke a bit more about Amsterdam, about museums and people. Beidou gets to learn a little bit more about the girls trip that Ningguang has, “probably a mistake” she says, how everything was so fast and they were all new friends but she wanted to fit in. Beidou nodded, before her job became so much about traveling she used to be like that too, always wanting to fit it, but now it was no use she might have just a handful of friends but they were genuine and her coworkers were just that: coworkers.
Beidou listened to her either way, she gave her encouraging words and when Ningguang changed to a lighter topic she followed her lead. They end up playing “I see” by the window until the other girl had to leave to change and Beidou rearranged her stuff in the bag, most of the time the friendships people had in places like this were temporary and even if Ningguang was the prettiest girl she have ever seen… she didn’t want to get attached.
The train stopped half an hour later. Beidou went to the left and Ningguang to the right. It was about time for luch and the place was absolutely crowded. It was a big train station and she went there several times already. She took a couple pictures just in case and decided to get some fries that were close to the station. Beidou knew there was food inside the station but she wanted to get a fast snack before getting to the rental she got for the night. The day looked promising, she got some good sleep and Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful, she could get a proper meal later, even cook something since the place had an oven and it would be way cheaper. Amsterdam was full of people outside too, but it wasn’t raining so Beidou felt like it was a miracle and she wanted to explore the city.
Beidou walked 5 minutes outside the Central Station to get some fries called “Fabel fries” she knew it was the most tourist thing she would ever do, but people on the internet said they were good and she has been craving them since she first saw pictures on Instagram. It was a 10 minute wait but she got some fries and sat by the canals. Eating her truffle and mayonnaise- flavored fries she saw Ningguang walking infront of her. She had a hamburger from a well known franchise and was looking for a place to sit, probably thinking the station was too crowded.
Ningguang looks at Beidou in the crowd and asks her if she could sit by her side on the bench. They speak a little bit about food and it’s at that moment when Beidou asks for her number. It’s silly really and she is totally not asking her out but it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have a pretty girl’s phone number. Ningguang smiles and gives it to her. Half an hour passes and Beidou excuses herself to go check in to the place she is sleeping in. It’s not very far so she goes there walking, taking her camera out when she is close enough.
The first hotel is in another capsule-like room but this time it’s in a renovated church now made hotel. It’s easy to get there just a free ride in a ferry and it takes her less than 20 minutes to get there, there’s different kinds of rooms but she decides for the smaller one since she has the whole day planned. The girl in the front desk gives her a key for a small space of storage and she saves her things there, locking them up. She only needs a small bag for general things and her cameras. Before going out she takes some pictures of spots that are alone. It’s an interesting concept but she thinks some of the art looks kind of creepy but maybe it is because she is easily frightened.
She gets out of the place and walks around 10 minutes to Monsplein and takes the bus to NEMO. It’s a museum day because after that she takes the subway from the museum park. She eats lunch there and walks around until it is late. When she gets to her accommodation she doesn’t actually mind the space because she’s so tired she only wants to sleep.
The next days are kind of the same. She stays in a hotel outside of Amsterdam that is more of a small cabin next to a beautiful park that’s made for people who are looking for more natural vibes than tourist vibes. After that she stays in a hotel that's apparently not a hotel because from the outside looks like a random van inside a building but there’s just a bunch of rooms disguised as something else. That part is fun. Her editor loves the parts so far, so many different kinds of hotels in a small enough space and Amsterdam is turning out to be one of her favorite cities so far.
The past days had been a blurr of pictures, subways, canals and a couple of bike rides hoping she doesn’t fall down. But she is quite enjoying the place, the vibrant city that’s full of endless canals who look so alike but different at the same time. By the fourth day she had already eaten the most popular foods and cried at both Van Goghs museum and Anna Frank’s museum.
So she is quite smitten to the beautiful city when she has to move to the last accommodation. Being already used to that feeling of almost melancholy that only stays with her on the last whole day in a new city she quietly walks to the last place. It’s a boat by the canals which sounded fun and scary in equal parts. She read the instructions on her phone to get in the boat, take a couple pictures of the incredible view and get in. The place was cozy, way warmer inside.
The place was a dream, a large house boat with an exterior patio with views to the canal and two bedrooms, one had a view to the outside and was way bigger than the other. Two bathrooms and a cute little kitchen. She was in love. The budget was a bit tight so she had to put a bit of her own money for this but it was all worth it. She even had a small place to read by the canal. After days of sleeping in tiny places and with one more the next day she had to enjoy it as much as she could. It was early so took some quick pictures before she put her stuff in the biggest room and showered. Changed her clothes for some comfortable ones.
Beidou went outside to get some groceries, there is a super market close enough and Beidou gets some things to cook. She finally has enough space to cook and she is so ready to use it, she gets some lemonade and a couple of beers to enjoy at night on that beautiful patio. She goes back fast enough to keep the things in the refrigerator and gets her tote bag. She grabs a sweater and her kindle stuffs them in the tote bag and goes outside again. It’s not a rainy day but it’s a bit cold. The plan of that day is to go to some beautiful bookstores she saw online but as she walks a block her phone is ringing.
She doesn’t recognize the number but she thinks it’s maybe someone from work so she picks up. The voice on the other end is none other than Ningguang which immidialy puts a smile on her face. The other girl is in the station and she can hear the voices of the people behind her. “The girl trip is over but I want to stay a little longer. Do you want to hang out? I heard they have these super famous cookies, do you want to try them? Are you still here in Amsterdam?” Beidou says yes to everything and chats to the other girl for a while until she discovers that Ningguang asked the whole week to work remotely. That’s when she proposes to her to stay in her rental, it’s a bit crazy but she does have an extra room and a couple of plans she would love to do with a beautiful girl. Ningguang might be as crazy as her because she accepts and minutes later she’s in the subway going where Beidou is.
Beidou shows her off the place she rented and Ningguang is in awe, excited about the boat and the atmosphere next to the canals, they go out to walk around the place, they pick some books and get some wine and get back before the sun sets, maybe she is not the best cook in the world but Beidou really tries to impress the other girl by trying to make something in the small kitchen, Ningguangs helps but mostly she keeps the chef entertained by commenting about her girl trip, her work back home. Beidou feels lost of how easy it is to just get lost in the moment, how easy the conversation flows between them.
By night they’re out on the small outdoor patio, they laugh under the street light that reflects in the canal. Beidou feels she is in a movie, in a beautiful place with a gorgeous woman who looks as much as stary eyed as she. Beidou wants to believe she is not a total flirt (even if her friends say otherwise) and she knows how to but she doesn’t want to mess up whatever this is, not fully knowing what the other woman knows, not really knowing if she is queer. But Ningguang doesn’t mind getting too close, she lets small touches, in her arm when she is laughing, in her hands when the other passes something, there comes to a point that Beidou feels the other girl is 3 seconds away from sitting in her lap, she is oblivious anyway until Ningguang says something on the lines of ‘my ex-girlfriend’ and Beidou thinks maybe it’s a sign.
Next thing she knows they are making out, it hits her like a truck, the chemistry, the easiness of it but she doesn’t want to over step so she doesn’t take it too far, the conversation continues this time filled with tension, it's not until they’re cold that they move inside, it’s almost midnight when Beidou suggest the other girl to go with her the next day, she has to make a stop in a city that’s between Amsterdam and the one they both call home. And maybe it is the tension, the rush of it all but Ningguang says yes. Beidou rambles about the place, how it is unique and the pictures and the idea behind it.
It’s 4 am when they both go to sleep, Beidou gives her a small good night kiss and Ningguang smiles at her, enchanted.
They wake up 4 hours later, it’s too early for both of them, their sleepy faces and their calm movements stay while they clean, pack again, get showered and change clothes.
By 10 am they’re in a train again, this time next to each other, Ningguang sleeping on Beidou’s sholder.
Beidou doesn’t know what to do with it, she is adorable, she’s wearing an oversized hoodie that makes her want to hug her forever. And trying to ignore her gay self she concentrates putting music and not long after she falls asleep.
It’s easy, she notices, when they get to the new place. And after, when they spend months and months just traveling together every time Ningguang can, when she has a day off or even a short trip on a weekend, they share a bed, they share kisses, but they take it slow. Beidou believes it’s painfully slow but she is too worried to break this beautiful thing they got going on so she waits.
Ningguang is the one who makes a move, one night in a hotel that’s made like a ship, the Italian sun in her face when she asks the question “do you wanna be my girlfriend?” And Beidou wants to get up and jump, she wants to scream very loud and dance, she says “yes” and kisses her then girlfriend instead.
She doesn’t know how she got lucky, how a small coincidence circles into a beautiful woman I her bed saying “mine, mine” willing to get out of her way to follow her in her trip, sending her good morning texts and cute selfies whenever they’re apart, calling each other about the silliest things. But she feels fortunate, she feels the luckiest person alive, and she makes everything in her power to make the other girl feel just as lucky.